'Battlestar Galactica' Recap: Girl Trouble

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SMOKE 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM (AND IT'S ON PAGE 61)
As Bill and Laura share what's left of an ancient joint buried in one of Adama's novels, she deliberates the nature of home: What defines it, what nurtures it? The idea that her ideal is a cabin she never got to build on New Caprica is a sweet one. (And wouldn't it be the sweetest thing ever if, when all is said and done, Adama goes back to New Caprica and builds that cabin, just so he can spread her ashes there?)

HELO, CAPTAIN OF THE GUILT SHIP LOLLYFRAK
I've always liked Tahmoh Penniket, but I think his plea for a raptor so he can find his kidnapped daughter and, if not, die trying, was perhaps the best performance he's given in the entirety of the series. Heartbreaking stuff.

SLAPPING BALTAR ON THE DECK
For a second, I wanted Kara to crack him on the chin with a right cross, but that slap was even more demeaning. Leave it to Baltar to use Kara, and the trust she placed in him when she gave him her ''dead chick'' dogtags, to grandstand at a funeral. I still don't understand why, exactly, he launched into his diatribe, but it served to show how low Baltar has sunk.

DON'T YOU WISH YOUR GIRLFRIEND WAS DEAD LIKE ME?
As conflicted as Kara may be, it's nice to see her find a modicum of peace by accepting what, if not who, she is. And it's nice to see Lee Adama step up and be a pal. ''Listen to me. I don't care...we've all been through some crazy, crazy stuff. I don't care what you think you saw. I watched your viper explode. Don't care. I'm here. You're here. This is all that matters.'' Just like that, another pic on the wall.

THE LAST BATTLESTAR
By the time we got to the end, when Adama took off his Admiral pips, it felt like ''Islanded'' was a visit to Galactica's death bed. A chance to make our peace, sit with the old girl while she's still got some light in her eyes. ''This ship never let us down, so we're gonna send her off in style,'' Adama intoned, as he and Tigh sent a few down the hatch. ''To Galactica, the best ship in the fleet.''

There was nothing inherently wrong with this episode, aside from some histrionic directorial flourishes by Edward James Olmos — the Jackson Pollock splatter-cry scene, the super-literal Galactica is the apple of Adama's eye'' superimposition. It didn't really accelerate us to the finish, but I'm okay with that. It reminds me a bit of the 58 endings to Return of the King: It was clear that Peter Jackson just didn't want to say goodbye to the film he spent a huge part of his life making, and who am I to begrudge him that.

Saying goodbye to this show, and this cast, must have been an incredibly hard thing for everyone involved in Battlestar Galactica to do, so if they wanna linger a bit, that's fine by me. I'd rather the lingering said something, but I'll give them a pass.

That said we'd better hit the downhill stretch soon, because I wanna feel that wind on my face and we're quickly running out of road.

What did you think? Was your ''whelm'' of the under or over variety? Will Athena ever forgive Helo for A) schtupping the enemy and B) letting said enemy steal their spawn? What is it about Baltar that makes him seek forgiveness/validation from everyone he's wronged — including Caprica Six — while scuttling the relationships with those he hasn't? Is it me, or is the new ''ship-captains'' Quorum even more annoying than the old one? Where's Tyrol hiding? And did the Cylons ask ''Batdance''-era Prince to do their Colony decorating?